Page:Poems Curwen.djvu/115

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John Ainsworth, Trinity pilot.

One by one, as they hear the call,
 From the tree of Time they flutter down
Like withered leaves, and we watch them fall,
 Now the green leaves, and now the brown,
And kind old Mother Earth receives
In her tender bosom the fallen leaves.

One by one, as the children go
 To sleep on a loving mother's breast,
So, one by one—the high, the low—
 Close their tired eyes and go to rest;
And kind Death takes the light away,
That sleep may be sound till dawn of day.

One by one, as ships in the night
 Glide away on the darksome sea,
So, one by one, they pass from our sight,
 Bound for the haven where they would be,
Heading towards the light afar,
Where the Pilot waits upon the bar.

The good old pilot, who has crossed
 Over the deeps of the Unknown Sea,
Has many a time been tempest-tossed;
 And many a fight with death had he
While keeping watch for ships at night,
Ready to show his signal light.

Now, he himself has heard the roar
 Of breakers on an unknown strand;
Has seen the lights of a fairer shore,
 And grasped the Master Pilot's hand;
And his frail old barque at Anchor lies
In the river that flows near Paradise.